


Fatebending

by Peach_Pit



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Blindness, Injury, M/M, Spoilers, Two Kings, tangentially domestic ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-24 16:04:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13814649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peach_Pit/pseuds/Peach_Pit
Summary: Ignis is already toying with Noctis's fate; how could he hurt him, too? But his True King proves resilient as they walk together into their new future.





	Fatebending

“If thy will is true, thou shalt wear this ring and lose your life, but not also without cost to the King Himself.”

Ignis, surrounded by the Rulers of Yore, stares up at the cold, unfeeling mask of the Mystic. “What cost should he incur? I told you I will pay the price!”

“The Anointed still wieldeth the power of our Star, a power unequal to all of life upon it. From Him we shalt take His sight.”

“No!”

“Then burn as others before you.”

“No -- I -- I won’t let him die, not for this! It’s not right! It’s not... _ fair _ !”

“Our concern is the fate of the Star,” says the Fierce.

“You’re taking  _ everything  _ from him! Even this world--”

“It is  _ thou  _ who interfereth with fate.”

Ignis throws his gaze to his feet. Will Noctis ever forgive him? Not knowing he has to die, but eventually, someday, somehow, knowing that Ignis’s actions cost him his sight… Will Noctis even stand to be around him anymore?

What hurts more: the world without Noctis, or Ignis’s world without Noctis?

Yet true is it that there is no decision to be made. Fate be damned, the world will have Noctis, and Noctis will have the world. The Prince will regain his life. Noctis will live on to love again, to rest peacefully, to have children who would carry on his legacy. Noctis deserves no less.

Eyes rising again slowly, they meet the Mystic with a determined pain. “So be it.”

The Rulers’ voices boom as one. “The contract is forged. The ring is now thine to control.”

“...Forgive me, Noct.”

…

For Noctis, it wasn’t painful. He came to, and all he opened his eyes to was a thick, deep darkness.

Luna’s light had left him. Everything lay in ruin around him, no signs of an Altar, an Altissia.

Darkness.

Yet, his friends were there. All but one.

It was days more before they found Ignis. Rushing across vast distances, Ravus commanded an entire army against the missing Chancellor. “Wherever he is, you’ll find Ignis,” he had said.

As an airship split the sky, Noctis’s friends were forced to explain what had happened. Only Gladiolus had known the full truth. The Shield could hardly look at his Prince -- not that it would have mattered. Fading eyes unseeing, Noctis couldn’t measure his brother’s pain, not so long as the Shield kept his voice steady, struggling against deep-seeded and aching gasps that came with the memory of his foretelling.

Awe would simply bring Prompto to silence. His hand seldom left Noctis’s shoulder. Never had he felt smaller, yet he who would soon Ascend as the Chosen made it known that Prompto mattered more to him now than ever in these dark times, a friend ever at his side in spite of all that had happened.

When finally he had gotten a moment to himself, Noctis had nearly vomited.

He had faltered in his true responsibility, and this was where it had led them. His only family. The only people he loved. Condemned to suffering, dying. Sacrificing what little they had left, tearing away their very essence.

For what? For  _ him? He  _ who had neglected to care for himself for so long?  _ He  _ who had spent more time playing video games than leading people?

But there had been no time for this self-pity. There had been no time for him to run his mind back through all the missteps that led to this moment, nor was there time to mourn. No; a King’s vision extended beyond his eyes, and his power extended to all of those who he loved. Ignis...was still alive. He could feel it in the sparks about his skin. Ignis had still been fighting for his life. So, too, would he fight for Ignis.

…

Noctis feels an immense power bend to his will. It isn't like the hollow void of melancholy he’d felt as he parted ways with Ravus, leaving him to tend to his dear sister. In the liminal space created by a single man's passion, ruin lying in the wake of the Crystal, he feels something entirely new awaken beneath his skin.

The power of life.

In his arms, Ignis, body ashen, lies succumbing to this power, the grips of Eos delivering him from the brink.

As his consciousness returns, the first thing he sees is Noctis’s eyes, pale as an overcast day, determined yet sharp between thick strands of jet black hair. He notices that the Prince wears his birthright before their hands slip away from each other’s.

“Noct…”

“I’m going to fix everything, Iggy.”

“Heal yourself, Noct…”

The form of the Crystal's power edges around Ignis’s face, illuminating a jaw still set strongly in spite of his strife, eyes full of concern. All the sounds -- the Crystal’s radiant pulsing, Gladiolus’s uneven breath, Prompto’s fidgeting -- go quiet as Noctis is enveloped with this new sight.

Yes.

This is  _ his  _ Ignis.

Ignis had given up the world for him.

Noctis presses his forehead to Ignis’s, feeling as the warmth and light return to him. As he pulls away, Ignis's eyes fall on him, and Noctis smiles.

“Wait for me.”

…

Ignis found it somewhat hard to live with himself for a while. That’s why his friends had come together for him. On certain days, he wouldn’t even trust himself, and the others wouldn’t leave him alone with his thoughts. Together, in unison, they moved forward and completed the work their future King had started, traveling the land, rallying the remnants of the Glaive, strengthening themselves.

When the King finally returned, he emerged to a world made darker in his absence. He followed the light on the horizon, the call of his friends, the pull of his heart.

For as he slept for ten long years, he felt someone with him, a soul-visitor. In sharing this Ring, the divine right of the blood of Lucis Caelum, Ignis had bonded with him. Planes drift closer in slumber, and two minds nearly become one.

_ “I’m here.” _

When their consciousness had drifted together, when by spirits outstretched and ephemeral fingertips touching their minds could meet, they sought to remind each other that there was an end to this separation. There was light beyond the dark shroud of the Star.

There had been a plan.

And when the sun rose again, they had their King. And when the sun shone upon him, all he wanted was Ignis’s frame bathed in citrus hue. Gone were kings past, though what remained was their scar. Gone was any sense of the eye that once drew a shape of sculpted jawlines and arched cupid’s bows, delineated the arc of thin glasses frames with seafoam eyes behind them. What remained was the memory of a feeling etched into his skin, flaring in the warmth of daylight as lips again met.

Ignis had Noctis’s love.

…

“Why did you do it?”

The question comes decades after Noctis has settled into the throne and Lucis has regained some of its luster.

“Pardon?”

It comes over breakfast, another of Ignis’s innumerable, loving creations. Noctis enjoys chocobo-shaped pancakes even without sight.

_ That he would ask this question now…  _ “It’s just amazing to me,” Noctis says, tone almost matter-of-fact. “For a while, I thought I’d lost it all. But...here we are. We have a home. A family. A world. It’s thanks to you. I...think about it every day, but I never say it, do I?”

“I believe you say it multiple times a night.”

Noctis waves his hand with a light chuckle. “Ignis… You nearly died.”

Noctis hears the clatter of Ignis’s silverware as the man resumes finishing off his plate. “Hurling myself at a catoblepas for food money and putting on the Ring of the Lucii aren’t much different from each other, in the scheme of things.”

Noctis laughs, a genuine and loud sound that makes Ignis’s heart swell, each and every time.

“I’m serious.”

“I know.” A hard grin parts a well-kept and greying beard with eyes to match. Noctis stands to walk to Ignis’s side of the table, fingers gliding along the edge. “I always knew you had a secret wild side.” As the King places himself in the other king’s lap, Ignis almost automatically wraps his arms around his waist. “Only  _ you  _ could have pulled off something like that.”

“Only you could have set things right. I always believed in you. Though, I thought for certain that you would be... _ upset _ .”

“ _ Upset’s _ one way to put it. One could hardly argue with the outcome, though.”

“If I could’ve wrapped my arms around you like this--”

“I felt you in my heart. It made things easier. Like...way easier. Besides, how long’s it been? I’ve been wrapped in your arms every night since.”

It is true: Ignis had wanted to impress upon Noctis his shape, never let him forget the feel of his embrace, the warmth of it. As the light of the Kings’ power now lights the sky, Noctis has also burned the memory of Ignis’s face into his mind’s eye, lest his inner vision remain dark.

Hair that dances like fire. Eyes that bring him to calm. Speckled skin as if each dot were placed by the paintbrush of the gods. A smile that had pierced his heart the moment he’d seen it with the ethereal vision that no one else possesses.

How it matched his memory of their first meeting.

Ignis lights up his world. 

“So, you're saying that apologizing now would be silly?”

Noctis laughs. “I love you.”

He refuses to forget.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [Callie](https://caseofthestolenspecs.tumblr.com) for helping me through this <3
> 
> I'm doing some short stories based on the situational prompts over at [Ingoct Week](https://ignoctweek.tumblr.com)! These are being cross-posted from my public tumblr.
> 
> I may someday expand on this idea; the struggle was condensing a lot of ideas into something I could actually finish in a day.
> 
> Please also visit my [other tumblr](https://lil-peach-pit.tumblr.com) for fun things.


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